5/31/10

Cardinal in Medjugorje---by Dr. Rosalie Ann Turton, Christoph Cardinal Schoenborn of Vienna, Austria, is personable brilliant, young, decisive, was a former student of Pope Benedict XVI, and presently is in close collaboration with the Holy Father, both as a friend and as a colleague. He is considered by many to be eminent and papabile.

(NECN: Karen Swensen, Medway, Mass.) - Earlier this year, the Vatican put a Venezuelan grandmother on the path to sainthood. Her name is Maria Esperanza and it turns out she has a strong Massachusetts connection.

5/29/10

Lifted out of the depths of despairGLEN ARGAN WESTERN CATHOLIC REPORTER

In all the New Testament, there is likely no section more mournful, more despairing than the latter half of chapter 7 of St. Paul's letter to the Romans.There, Paul acknowledges that he is a slave to sin, that he cannot do the good thing he wants to do, but rather does the bad thing he hates. He goes so far as to seemingly absolve himself of responsibility - "It is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me."Like the psalmist, he delights in God's law. But in his "members," he cannot live out that law. He worships God with his mind, but with his body, he is enslaved to sin. "Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"If he were writing and thinking like a 21st century North American, Paul would be one of the most guilt-ridden people to ever walk the planet.

But in fact, he is a first century Jew. So it needs to be stressed that when Paul writes in the first person, he is typically referring to the whole people of Israel.ISRAEL'S SORROWThis makes the situation even worse. Not only is Paul enslaved to sin, so is all of Israel. God's law, the Torah, is the glory of Israel. But Israel is impotent to live out that law. Israel prays the Psalms and keeps the Sabbath. It is all for naught. Israel remains enslaved to sin.Is there any way out of slavery? Paul's answer is an unequivocal "Yes!" "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death" (7.25; 8.2).If Romans 7 is the depths of despair, Romans 8 sets out the path of hope. Man left to his own devices - even if he knows the Torah - can only drown in sin. But the person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells has the fullness of life.SURRENDER TO THE SPIRITThe darkest hour is just before dawn. When all seems lost, we can only surrender ourselves to the power of the Spirit. The door opens onto an amazing reality: "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God" (8.14).We are not only freed from slavery, we get to share in the very life of the king. Thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, we get to live with God, sharing in all his joys in the glory of his palace.This is more than we have any right to expect. Considering our dissolute way of life, escaping condemnation would be a pretty good result. But to share in intimate communion with God, to call God "Father," . . . well, what can we say?This coming of the Holy Spirit that turns us from sin to living in grace is not a one-time emotional event. It is not a warm fuzzy. Nor is it reserved for a devout elite within the Church.The eruption of the Holy Spirit into our lives may well be accompanied by warm emotions. But at heart, it is a turning around of our lives and then a constant abiding of that Spirit who is infinitely greater than us.At the Last Supper, Jesus told the apostles he would send the Spirit to be with them forever. "You know (the Spirit) because he abides with you and he will be in you" (John 14.16, 17).HOLY SPIRIT IS LOVEThe Holy Spirit is love. We know that love is present, not by fine words or soft caresses, but by its fidelity. If love is real, it will always be there, through good times and bad. If the Spirit is present, he will always be there, even if we do not constantly detect that presence.But if when Paul talks about his enslavement to sin, he really means the enslavement of all Israel, then when he talks about the Spirit making us children of God, he is referring to the new Israel. He is referring to the Church.To this point in our discussions of the Holy Spirit, we have taken the Church as the background. Now, we need to bring the background up front and see more clearly how the Spirit is present in the Church. We need to look more closely at the Spirit's presence in us, not just as individuals, but also as a community. --> http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2010/0531/spirit053110.shtml

To summarize, when "the consummation of all is close at hand," that is, when the world is falling apart, love, trust, pray, forgive, serve, and rejoice. Don't be upset or surprised.

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This may seem to be a very unusual way of reacting to the end of the world or of our own world, but we can react this way because of our personal relationship with Jesus.

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When we have totally surrendered our lives to Him, we can confidently say: "I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Rm 8:38-39). "The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; Whom should I fear?" (Ps 27:1)

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Prayer: Jesus, may I look forward to the end of the world, even my own world, because of Your final coming.

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"I give you My word, if you are ready to believe that you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer, it shall be done for you." —Mk 11:

5/27/10

Why did the Apostles and early disciples hide themselves in the upper room? And why is it that today, we Catholic’s often hide ourselves from the world around us? In today’s show, we talk with Fr. John Randall about his latest book, “No Spirit… No Church”. Fr. Randall shares about the golden age of the Church, which he experienced when he was in the seminary and how all all came crumbling down in a few short years. In his book, he offers the solution that he used and saw it build up two dying parishes.

5/26/10

Pope Benedict XVI reminded the faithful that "there is no Church without Pentecost," adding that "there is no Pentecost without the Virgin Mary," as he led celebrations for the feast day.The first Pentecost constituted the "true 'baptism' of the Church," the Pope said at his midday audience, "but it does not finish there." He explained that "the Church experiences countless 'Pentecosts' which enliven local communities" in her Eucharistic liturgies.

Celebrating Mass earlier on Sunday in the Vatican basilica, the Holy Father said in his homily that the Holy Spirit brings unity to the faithful. "Thus unity is the sign of recognition, the calling card of the Church in the course of her universal history," he said. Commenting on the experience of the original apostles, who spoke in tongues on the first Pentecost, the Pope said that the Church always speaks to people of all nations. "The Church in never a prisoner of political, racial, or cultural boundaries," he said. "She must not be confused with other states or with federations of states." This fact has implications for all believers, the Pope continued.

*"When a person or a community close themselves inside their own way of thinking and acting, it is a sign they have distanced themselves from the Holy Spirit." The Church must always reach out to others and always allow for diversity among the faithful, he said.

Next the Pope contrasted the "fire" instilled by the Holy Spirit with earthly fire, or the fire wrought by warfare. Unlike those other kinds, he said, the fire of the Spirit "does not injure, and yet it achieves a transformation." Still, he acknowledged, fallen humans are fearful of this fire, too: "we are afraid of being scalded and would prefer to remain as we are." He exhorted all the faithful to be open to the transforming fire of the Holy Spirit.Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.Regina Coeli: Without Pentecost There Is No Church (VIS)We Must Allow Ourselves To Be Touched by the Holy Spirit (VIS)

Message – May 25, 2010Dear children! God gave you the grace to live and to defend all the good that is in you and around you, and to inspire others to be better and holier; but Satan, too, does not sleep and through modernism diverts you and leads you to his way. Therefore, little children, in the love for my Immaculate Heart, love God above everything and live His commandments. In this way, your life will have meaning and peace will rule on earth. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Yesterday we began "ordinary times" in the Church calendar. But there are no "ordinary times" in our own lives when we can forget that Satan goes about like a roaring lion, seeking to divert us from living the Gospel message of truth and the message of love given us by Jesus Himself. Our Lady reminds us that God has given and continues to give us the graces we need to be bearers of the truth and messengers of the Gospel teaching to love one another as we love ourselves. Satan will try to use everything at his disposal to confuse us and cloud our thinking, but we have the Holy Spirit to guide us in our seeking and living the truth. Our Lady's love for us can strengthen us and encourage us to live better lives in order to be witnesses of God's Love and peace.Joy

“Dear children! God gave you the grace to live and to defend all the good that is in you and around you, and to inspire others to be better and holier; but satan, too, does not sleep and through modernism diverts you and leads you to his way. Therefore, little children, in the love for my Immaculate Heart, love God above everything and live His Commandments. In this way, your life will have meaning and peace will rule on earth. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

5/24/10

Wonderful as this feast is, there could be a problem with Pentecost – not unlike with our other great feasts – Christmas, for instance, or Easter. The problem is that we may look at them more as historical happenings than here-and-now happenings. They are both. God is timeless, after all, and the divine action, the divine energy unleashed in the Incarnation, or the Resurrection, or the Sending of the Spirit isn’t locked in the past: it’s ongoing, ever new. The Word of God took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary at a moment in time, true, but the Word is still taking flesh in our time, in our flesh. And Christ who triumphed over the power of death on Easter triumphs over death even now. And the Holy Spirit who burst forth upon the apostles in wind and fire on Pentecost is still fanning those flames, lighting those fires in our time. Pentecost may be history but Pentecost is also here and now!Pentecost at St. James CathedralBut maybe I don’t need to spend much time convincing you of this today because the Cathedral certainly looks like Pentecost is happening right now, doesn’t it! And this liturgy feels like Pentecost is happening right now, doesn’t it? And it is. God’s Spirit is moving among us at this moment – prodding us, waking us up, stirring us, sending us! The Pentecost Sequence which we just heard, that lovely Medieval prayer inviting the Holy Spirit to come among us as our guest, our sweet refreshment, our light, our solace, our comfort, makes it clear that Pentecost is now. Listen again:Come, Holy Spirit, Come! And from your celestial home Shed a ray of light divine….Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour your dew; Wash the stains of guilt away. Bend the stubborn heart and will; Melt the frozen, warm the chill; Guide the steps that go astray.For a few moments, I would like to draw on those images to help bring Pentecost from the past into the present.“Heal our wounds, our strength renew.” Our wounds are many, aren’t they? Too many to count, really. We are wounded people, each of us, and our world is wounded, too. In his stirring message this past Easter, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of what he called the “many wounds of our world,” and he recited a litany of them: “the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism, the thousand faces of violence which some tend to justify in the name of religion, contempt for human life, the violation of human rights, the exploitation of persons.” Then the Pope zeroed in on specifics and spoke of “the catastrophic and underestimated humanitarian situation in Darfur, and of Iraq where nothing positive comes forth, torn apart as it is by continual slaughter.”The Pope gave a world perspective to what we mean this Pentecost when we pray, “Heal our wounds.” The wounds of the human family are many and deep. No war can heal them; no arms build-up can heal them; nor can violence of any sort. Only God’s Spirit can heal the wounds of our world -- God’s Spirit working through the likes of you and me.The Pentecost Sequence continues: “On our dryness pour your dew.” Who of us doesn’t know dryness in our lives? And who of us in our dryness doesn’t long for the refreshing dew of the Holy Spirit? The 63rd Psalm says this in remarkably beautiful poetry: “O God, you are my God, for you I long. My body pines for you, my soul thirsts for you like a dry, weary land without water...For your love is better than life.” Beautiful, but do we believe it? Believe that God’s love is better than life itself? In our better moments we do; in our lesser ones we try to quench our thirst at wells that only make us thirstier. But only God’s Spirit satisfies. “On our dryness pour your dew.”The Sequence goes on: “Bend the stubborn heart and will, melt the frozen, warm the chill.” Stubborn hearts, cold hearts – we know both of them. How often do we cling to our harsh, unbending judgments about people? How often do we freeze out people -- even those we should love the most? Our Pentecost prayer is that the Holy Spirit will bend our rigid hearts, break open our locked-up hearts, and fire our frozen hearts. Only God’s Spirit can do this. The great 19th century Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, in his poem, “God’s Grandeur,” paints a lovely picture of this warming Spirit, this softening, mothering Spirit:“The Holy Ghost over the bent world broodsWith warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”The Pentecost Sequence concludes with a plea:On the faithful who adore And confess you, evermore In your sevenfold gift descend.On the day we were confirmed the bishop extended his hands over us and prayed a solemn prayer calling each of those seven gifts by name and asking God to breathe them into us: “…the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of wonder and awe” in God’s presence.My friends, each of those seven gifts is ours, and seven is not really their number – because seven means infinity, seven means gifts beyond number. Those divine gifts and countless others are already ours and if they are asleep within us, Pentecost can flame them into fire! It can. God’s Spirit is no less at work now than on that first Pentecost. The mighty wind is still blowing and tongues of fire are still burning. Look around you. If you haven’t yet caught fire, look at those who have! This community is alive with God’s spirit. Witness our prayer together. Witness this prayer! St. Paul told us in the first reading that “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” This liturgy and every liturgy we celebrate is our way of telling the world that Jesus is Lord. We can always say it better and we can always mean it more, but we would not be saying it at all were it not for God’s Spirit.The same goes for everything we do here: every child we teach, every stranger we welcome, every friend we feed. Everything we do here is a way of saying that Jesus is Lord and, therefore, the work of the Holy Spirit. So, I say it again: Pentecost is not past. Pentecost is present!“Come Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.” Send forth your Spirit and we will be created and in that Spirit we will renew the face of the earth!”Father Michael G. Ryan Cathedral Pastor

Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, seen here celebrating English Mass in St. James Church on September 29, 2009, grew up in the central-Mexico city of San Luis Potosi. He is the oldest of 15 children. He joined the religious order of the Mexico-based Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. He serves under the Archdiocese of Chicago. This was his first visit to Medjugorje.

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Homily of Bishop Gustavo Garcia-SillerBishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, from the Archdiocese of Chicago, spent a week in Medjugorje and celebrated Sunday Mass in Medjugorje on September 28, 2009. The message he gave in his homily this day speaks of the importance of allowing the HOLY SPIRIT to guide us all in being instruments of the NEW PENTECOST.

A reflection on the meaning of the Feast of Pentecost and the person, gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of Pentecost, originally the Jewish Feast of weeks commemorating the gift of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai 50 days after the Exodus, was the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out in the Upper Room upon the apostles and other disciples in the form of tongues of fire and a strong wind, fifty days after Easter Sunday, the day marking the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Pentecost is seen as the birthday of the Church.

As a teen, I thought the clergy were supposed to do everything. We laity were just called to pray, pay, and obey. Oh yes, and keep the commandments, of course. The original 10 seemed overwhelming enough. Then I discovered the Sermon on the Mount and nearly passed out.

Perhaps this is why many inactive Catholics are so resentful of their upbringing in the Church. For them, religion means frustration, failure, and guilt.

Somehow they, and I, missed the good news about Pentecost. OK, we Catholics celebrate the feast every year and mention it in Confirmation class, but lots of us evidently didn’t “get it.”

Because if we “got it,” we’d be different. Bold instead of timid, energetic instead of anemic, fascinated instead of bored. Compare the apostles before and after Pentecost and you’ll see the difference the Spirit makes.

The gospel is Good News not just because we’re going to heaven, but because we’ve been empowered to become new people, here and now. Vatican II insisted that each of us is called to the heights of holiness (Lumen Gentium, chapter V). Not by will-power, mind you. But by Holy Spirit power. Holiness consists in faith, hope, and especially divine love. These are “virtues,” literally “powers,” given by the Spirit. To top it off, the Spirit gives us seven further gifts which perfect faith, hope, and love, making it possible for us to live a supernatural, charismatic life. Some think this is only for the chosen few, “the mystics.” Thomas Aquinas taught to the contrary that the gifts of Is 11:1-3 (wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord) are standard equipment given in baptism, that all are called to be “mystics.”

Vatican II also taught that every Christian has a vocation to serve. We need power for this too. And so the Spirit distributes other gifts, called “charisms.” These, teaches St. Thomas, are not so much for our own sanctification as for service to others. There is no exhaustive list of charisms, though St. Paul mentions a few (I Corinthians 12:7-10, Ro 12:6-8) ranging from tongues to Christian marriage (1 Cor 7: 7). Charisms are not doled out by the pastors; but are given directly by the Spirit through baptism and confirmation, even sometimes outside of the sacraments (Acts 10:44-48).

Do I sound Pentecostal? That’s because I belong to the largest Pentecostal Church in the world. Correcting the mistaken notion that the charisms were just for the apostolic church, Vatican II had this to say: "Allotting His gifts “to everyone according as he will” (1 Cor. 12:11), He [the Holy Spirit] distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. . . . These charismatic gifts, whether they be the most outstanding or the more simple and widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation, for they are exceedingly suitable and useful for the needs of the Church" (LG12).

Powerful gifts, freely given to all. Sounds like a recipe for chaos. But the Lord also imparted to the apostles and their successors a unifying charism of headship. The role of the ordained is not to do everything themselves. Rather, they are to discern, shepherd, and coordinate the charims of the laity so that they mature and work together for the greater glory of God (LG 30).

So what if you, like me, did not quite “get it” when you were confirmed? I’ve got good news for you. You actually did get the Spirit and his gifts. Have you ever received a new credit card with a sticker saying “Must call to activate before using?” The Spirit and his gifts are the same way. You have to call in and activate them. Do it today and every day, and especially every time you attend Mass. Because every sacramental celebration is a New Pentecost where the Spirit and his gifts are poured out anew (CCC 739, 1106).

That’s why the Christian Life is an adventure. There will always be new surprises of the Spirit!

This was originally published in Our Sunday Visitor as a reflection upon the Scripture Readings for the Feast of Penteconst Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104; 1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-14 and Jn 20:19-23. It is reproduced here with the permission of the author.

5/20/10

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, come to us today. We need your love, because we desire to go on the new way to return to the Father, to take the step to the Father. O Come, Holy Spirit, You who makes all things new. Today grant a miracle in us and through us. Change our hearts. Take from us our hearts of stone and give us a new heart, a heart that knows how to love, how to pray, how to forgive. A heart that knows how to embrace the cross and recognize the will of God and carry it to the end. Come, O Most Holy Spirit, You who are our peace, come fill us with peace. You who are love, fill us with love and blessing and salvation. We are not here accidentally. We have been called, that we may be able to recognize our call and our mission. We ask You to come O Most Holy Spirit, that our masks may melt away, that our true face may be revealed before You. Come, O Most Holy Spirit, may a miracle happen today: the beginning of our conversion, the beginning of our true devotion. Come, O Most Holy Spirit pour out Your grace and Your strength on Your Church and convert us. Sanctify us. Change us. Come, O Most Holy Spirit, we are the Church united together in prayer with the Mother. As the disciples at the very beginning, united together with Her in prayer for the gift of Your Spirit, for the gift of love, that we may be freed from selfishness and hatred, that we may be freed from every evil, and that we may start to love, that we may start to forgive and to pray, that we may start to fast. Come, O Most Holy Spirit. Come bless us. Come, change us. You who are prayer, come and anoint us with prayer that we may become the Church that believes in the power of prayer. Come, Most Holy Spirit, renew prayer in us, that we may become the renewers of family prayer.Come, O Most Holy Spirit, come heal us, come bless us, come convert us. O You who anoints with Your Peace, with Your Joy, with Your Love. Come anoint us.

In the last message O Blessed Mother, You say, that the one who prays, lives joy and peace and love. O Blessed Mother, here is the Church in prayer, here is the Church who desires to renew itself in prayer, firm in prayer, come to fall in love with prayer. O grant that these days may be the renewal of our prayer, of our faith through prayer, of our love through prayer, of a Christian life in prayer. Come, O Most Holy Spirit. Come, pour Yourself out upon us. The Church united together with the Mother is praying to you, You who make all things new. Grant that this Church may become new. It may become a Church of prayer, a holy Church, a sign amongst nations, your city on the hillside, your light on the way, Your Self. Come, O Most Holy Spirit. Come and pour Yourself out upon us. Our Father who art in Heaven....Hail Mary, full of grace...Mother and Queen of Peace - pray for us. Mother of the Church - pray for us. Mother and Queen of the family - pray for us. Consolation of the Sorrowful - pray for us, help of Christians - pray for us, help of the sick - pray for us, gate of heaven - pray for us. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

5/19/10

With the baptism in the Spirit comes the spiritual power we all need. Again, from Luke 24:49: “I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” With those words, Jesus ascended into heaven.

And what happened at Pentecost? As we read in Acts 2:2-4 there came a wind from heaven and tongues of fire and those who had been fearful before and had denied Jesus and weren’t anywhere about when he was crucified began to speak in other tongues and preach the word so effectively that 3000 were added to their numbers that day! We need the Holy Spirit to be effective witnesses for God. The more we allow him to do in us, the more we can witness to. We cannot witness to what we have not seen or experienced. We cannot talk farther than we have walked, and the more we allow God to gift us and heal us, the more we can help others.

.Father Randall is an old-timer in the Catholic charismatic renewal. Now retired, 78 at the time of this talk, he tells how he was already a priest, baptized, confirmed and ordained, when David Wilkerson’s group ( of The Cross and the Switchblade fame) prayed with him for the Baptism in the Spirit — and the difference it made.

5/18/10

Monday, May 17, 2010Grace presses onwardThe Holy Spirit never stops working. Day after day, night after night, grace presses onward. Bringing everything into the light of God. The more people hide the more grace is poured out by God. God is love. Love uproots hidden things. Not to harm but to heal. The Mystical Body of Christ is wounded and the Holy Spirit is surfacing these wounds so that our eyes open up, we turn to God, and He heals us. If we let Him.We have free will and He respects that but He has sounded the alarm worldwide. This is our wake up call. We look around the earth and see these wounds festering everywhere. In the eyes of our teenagers crying out for love and purpose, in our elderly who are made to feel useless and unwanted in our society when they should be cherished, in our overflowing prisons. The more we run from God the more obvious this woundedness is becoming. Will we completely destroy the earth and ourselves before we wake up and realize the answer is staring us right in the face? All creation is crying out. No one can blame God for what we ourselves have wrought. He is simply allowing us bigger and bigger glimpses of the damage we have done through our hardness of heart. The truth is...people were made for love. God would loves us back to wholeness if we allow Him to. Jesus took upon Himself our sins and by "His stripes we were healed". Can we look Jesus in the eye and say that this wasn't enough? He poured Himself out for us. "It is finished." John 19:30 Yes, Lord, it is enough.Posted by Mary333 at 11:51 AM

Dear Family of Mary!"Tonight I wish to tell you during the days of this novena to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on your families and on your parish. Pray, and you will not regret it."(June 2, 1984)

As we approach Pentecost Our Lady encourages us to pray for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us, poured like water over us and into us! The Holy Spirit is often compared to water. I was reading the label on a bottle of water and it said, "Purified Water, Essential for Life". How true this is! Water is essential for all life. We can't live without it. So I extended the metaphor, and realized that the Holy Spirit is essential for life as well. We really can't live our true life, the life God intends for us without the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to live fully without the Holy Spirit.

Yesterday in the Office of Readings (Monday, Seventh Week of Easter), Saint Cyril of Jerusalem is quoted.

He speaks to this point so well:" The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of living water, welling up into eternal life. This is a new kind of water, a living, leaping water, welling up for those who are worthy. But why did Christ call the grace of the Spirit water? Because all things are dependent on water; plants and animals have their origin in water. Water comes down from heaven as rain, and although it is always the same in itself, it produces many different effects, one in the palm tree, another in the vine, and so on throughout the whole of creation. It does not come down, now as one thing, now as another, but while remaining essentially the same, it adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it."In the same way the Holy Spirit, whose nature is always the same, simple and indivisible, apportions grace to each man as he wills. Like a dry tree which puts forth shoots when watered, the soul bears the fruit of holiness when repentance has made it worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit never changes, effects of his action, by the will of God and in the name of Christ, are both many and marvelous.

The Holy Spirit fosters life in us, each according to the gifts and attributes we have been given, so that the Body of Christ will flourish. The Spirit works in me to make me more alive, more myself, more perfected in my natural gifts and supernatural gifts. And He does the same in you! And together we will compliment and encourage each other as we grow holy! It is a marvelous system!! We should all desire the Holy Spirit so that we can become "all the we can be" as they say in the army! Come, Holy Spirit, Come! In Jesus and Mary !Cathy NolanMary TV

God, our Father, we thank You for Your love, we recognize You today as Our God, our Creator. We thank You for our life, for the lives of our parents and all the people whom we have met, and those whom we have yet to meet. Along with Mary we ask You, give us the grace that we may, through prayer and sacrifice, prepare ourselves for the Coming of Your Holy Spirit.

Give the strength that we may be freed of all that which at this moment hinders us from being open to Him, Your Holy Spirit. Lord, we bring before You our entire life, all that which is deformed inside us, all that is bad within us, all that is dark and injured, and we beg You, come and heal us, through You Holy Spirit. And we beg You forgiveness that we were often fearful of You, that we often distrusted You, and did not allow You to transform and to change us. Prepare our heart so that we may recognize Your plan through the Holy Spirit, that we may listen for Your word, and that we may then live it. Send into our heart your Spirit of Truth, that we may recognize You, our true God, and that we may allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit on Your path to Eternal Life.

Lord, we beg You, send Your Spirit of Truth and Love into the hearts of all those who are responsible in the Holy Church, and in the world. Send Your Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who, at this moment, are resisting You, who still distrust You, and change their hearts. Send the Spirit of Love into the hearts of those who hate, send the Spirit of Strength into the hearts of those who have become enslaved by sin, so that we, as Your Children, may come to be able to love in freedom and in love.

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Give us the grace that we may come to understand the message that the Mother of Your Son Jesus Christ has given us through Her, and that we all may come to live better lives with the strength of Your Spirit. Bless us and heal us, and bless all those who have ever asked for our prayers, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.Fr. Slavko of Medjugorje.......Medjugorje; May 28, 1998

Dear children! Today I invite you to open yourselves to God by means of prayer so the Holy Spirit may begin to work miracles in you and through you. I am with you and I intercede before God for each one of you because, dear children, each one of you is important in my plan of salvation. I invite you to be carriers of good and peace. God can give you peace only if you convert and pray. Therefore, my dear little children, pray, pray, pray and do that which the Holy Spirit inspires you. Thank you for having responded to my call. Our Lady's Medjugorje message, May 25, 1993•

The Virgin Mary calls us to pray with her to the Holy Spirit in order for us to draw strength and force from above, to be wrapped in the power coming from God. Together with the apostles she was perseverant in her prayer waiting for Jesus’ promise – the Holy Spirit. She is the spouse of the Holy Spirit and full of mercy. She is the one who knows best the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit and therefore knows how much we still need his strength today. We received the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, and we have heard that he exists. And yet, it seems as if all other spirits are around us but the Holy Spirit. That is why Our Lady’s call is serious and so much needed. The only way towards the experience of the strength of the Holy Spirit is prayer. Fr Ljubo Kurtović OFM

Dear Mother Mary, thank you for inviting us to open our hearts to God by means of prayer so that the Holy Spirit may begin to work miracles in us and through us. Thank you for being with us and interceding for each one of us before God. Thank you for reminding us of our importance in helping to realise your plan of salvation. We accept your invitation to be carriers of good and peace, knowing that we can only receive God’s peace if we convert and pray. And so, inspired by your words and the Holy Spirit we promise to pray, pray, pray and respond to your call. AmenPosted by pilgrim at 12:01 AM

5/16/10

Dear children! In this time, I call you all to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon every baptized creature, so that the Holy Spirit may renew you all and lead you on the way of witnessing your faith – you and all those who are far from God and His love. I am with you and intercede for you before the Most High. Thank you for having responded to my call."

5/15/10

When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained to him God's new way in greater detail." —Acts 18:26

Apollos was "eloquent," "an authority on Scripture," "instructed in the new way of the Lord," "full of spiritual fervor," and both accurate and fearless in his speech and teaching (Acts 18:24-26). This man had a lot going for him. Yet when Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos speak, they knew he had everything but what he needed most. Apollos knew about Jesus, but didn't know Jesus. He only knew of John's baptism of repentance. He had not received a new nature or Life in the Spirit by being baptized into Jesus and filled with the Spirit.

Many people today, even those baptized, are like Apollos. They have everything going for them but what they need most. They have sinned, stifled the Spirit, and are no longer living out their baptisms. In this condition, it's impossible for them to please God, no matter how hard they try or how talented they are (see Rm 8:8). They should stop everything, repent, renew their commitment to Jesus, and Receive the Spirit (Acts 2:38). Then they will receive power from on high (Acts 1:8). Only then can they go make disciples of all nations and build God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

EDMONTON - The Angelus, the prayer once prayed daily at noon and supper throughout the Church, is the whole of Christian spiritual life in a nutshell, says Father John Randall.

."I love the Angelus because the Angelus takes us into the essence of prayer," Randall said May 1 at a conference sponsored by Catholic Renewal Services.The plan of the Angelus is simple, he said. It consists of three short prayers, each followed by a Hail Mary to meditate on the meaning of that prayer.First, we pray that the angel came to Mary and told her of God's plan. Second, Mary surrenders to that plan. Third, we learn that the plan was successful - the Word has become flesh.The Angelus is a prayer of the incarnation and the incarnation continues to the end of the world, Randall said. "It goes on in your life."*Every day, if you hear God's plan and you agree to it, "God's plan is going to take place in your life that day."

The AngelusThe angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary . . .Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to thy word. Hail Mary . . .The Word was made flesh. And dwelt among us. Hail Mary . . .Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.Let us pray.Pour forth, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy grace into hearts; that we, to whom the Incarnation was made known by the message of an angel, may by his Passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen. -->

5/14/10

Dear children! Today I call you, through prayer and sacrifice, to prepare yourselves for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Little children, this is a time of grace and so, again, I call you to decide for God the Creator. Allow Him to transform and change you. May your heart be prepared to listen to, and live, everything which the Holy Spirit has in His plan for each of you. Little children, allow the Holy Spirit to lead you on the way of truth and salvation towards eternal life. Thank you for having responded to my call. May 25, 1998

5/11/10

“In Medjugorje Our Lady is coming in a very powerful way...It is impossible not to see here the Lord our God. Impossible!...In all our churches throughout the world, it should be as it is here in Medjugorje!

“Because of my responsibility as a bishop of the Catholic Church, I have come personally to see if this event is real, if it is acceptable. From the very first time that I came to Medjugorje, my conviction is that these events are authentic. In Medjugorje, Our Lady is coming in a very powerful way, an outstanding way, different then her other comings. It is impossible not to see here the Lord our God. Impossible! I come here to pray to Our Lady, to feel her presence, not only because I feel the need for it, but because this is giving me a consolation on the road, a strength to continue, to walk with one additional reason, with the conviction that God truly loves us all.“At other places of pilgrimage where Our Lady was appearing, some miracles have happened, and this is beautiful. But here, for such a long time, Our Lady is giving messages, is continuing to speak. I would say that, here, Our Lady continues to speak to humanity. She is not doing it from a pulpit, but as a mother. Those who want to hear and to obey: they listen. Those who do not want: they don’t listen. Our Lady is continuing to speak here. I think that this is because the time in which we live is powerful and important as no time before. In our time, Our Lady is observing as a mother, seeing our reality and coming to help us to think again about our way of life and about the world in which we live...“In Eucharistic celebrations, I saw something extraordinary: pilgrims were attentive, concentrated, although we had Holy Mass in a conference hall. Nothing could distract them; they experienced something deep within them. The presence of the mystery can almost be felt in the air here. The faithful come to the churches elsewhere also, but you see them talking. But not here! Here, they are attentive!

*In all our churches throughout the world, it should be as it is here in Medjugorje.” (Bishop Domenico Pecile, Vicar of St John Lateran Basilica in Rome, gave his October 4, 2005, testimony to “Mir” Information Center in Medjugorje; “Medjugorje and the Church”, pp. 101, 102).

5/10/10

When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you. "I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you. Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB Commentary of the day : Paul VI, Pope from 1963-1978 Evangelii nuntiandi, ch. 7, §75

**“When the Advocate comes, the Spirit of truth, he will testify on my behalf” It is in the "consolation of the Holy Spirit" that the Church increases. The Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Church. It is He who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of Jesus and of His mystery. It is the Holy Spirit who, today just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by Him. The Holy Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find by himself, and at the same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the kingdom being proclaimed.Techniques of evangelization are good, but even the most advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Spirit. The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the most convincing dialectic has no power over the heart of man. Without Him the most highly developed schemas resting on a sociological or psychological basis are quickly seen to be quite valueless. We live in the Church at a privileged moment of the Spirit. Everywhere people are trying to know Him better, as the Scripture reveals Him. They are happy to place themselves under His inspiration. They are gathering about Him; they want to let themselves be led by Him. Now if the Spirit of God has a preeminent place in the whole life of the Church, it is in her evangelizing mission that He is most active. It is not by chance that the great inauguration of evangelization took place on the morning of Pentecost, under the inspiration of the Spirit.

It must be said that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization: it is He who impels each individual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is He who in the depths of consciences causes the word of salvation to be accepted and understood. But it can equally be said that He is the goal of evangelization: He alone stirs up the new creation, the new humanity of which evangelization is to be the result, with that unity in variety which evangelization wishes to achieve within the Christian community. Through the Holy Spirit the Gospel penetrates to the heart of the world, for it is He who causes people to discern the signs of the times — signs willed by God — which evangelization reveals and puts to use within history.

5/9/10

Two weeks from today, we will celebrate Pentecost. We will receive in a new way the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, Whom the Father will send in Jesus' name (Jn 14:26). The Spirit will instruct us in everything and remind us of all that Jesus told us (Jn 14:26). This instructing and reminding from the Spirit will have such an effect on our lives that our decisions will also be the decisions of the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:28). Therefore, our decisions will be correct, life-changing, life-giving, miraculously wise, and fruitful for God's kingdom.

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Many of us have messed up our lives through bad decisions. Our marriages, finances, employment, family life, and lifestyle were forged by a series of bad decisions. The way out of this mess is to make good decisions by the power of the Spirit. Therefore, we must receive the Holy Spirit. Our lives, decisions, and futures depend on receiving the Holy Spirit. We must go into the upper room of prayer, repentance, and conversion. There we will receive the Spirit. He will change our lives, hearts, minds, and decisions.

Prayer: Father, may I be able to hear the Spirit tell me whether to turn to the right or the left (see Is 30:21).

Praise: Praise the risen Jesus, Who has the power to change the most hardened heart! Praise Jesus, Savior, Good Shepherd, and King.

5/8/10

May 2010A crusader for the Holy SpiritFr. John Randall says incredible things happen when people experience the spiritWCR PHOTO GLEN ARGANFr. John Randall said after he experienced the Holy Spirit, every time he followed one of God's plans, it worked.GLEN ARGAN WESTERN CATHOLIC REPORTER

On the eve of Pentecost 2006, Father John Randall was recuperating at home from a hip replacement. He switched to EWTN on his TV and was overjoyed as he watched Pope Benedict lead a prayer meeting in St. Peter's Square with 400,000 young people.The next day, his joy turned to sorrow as throughout his diocese no one made any mention of the Holy Spirit. "I was crestfallen on Pentecost Day," he recalls.The next year it was the same as Pentecost fell on the U.S. Memorial Day holiday and the following year it was drowned out by Mother's Day.Randall made up his mind: "I vowed I would spend the rest of my life as a crusader for the Holy Spirit."THE MISSING INGREDIENT:

"The missing ingredient in the Church is the Holy Spirit," he told about 120 people at an April 30-May 1 conference at St. Andrew's Centre auditorium. "When the Holy Spirit has permission (to act), incredible things happen, even today. Why don't we see that?"Randall, an 82-year-old author, pastor and Scripture scholar from Providence, R.I., said Pope Benedict sees the importance of the Holy Spirit to the life of the Church. Earlier this year, the pope said, "The most important thing in the Church today is that Catholics experience being baptized in the Holy Spirit."Randall put the emphasis on "experience."FROZEN BAPTISM:The Catholic Church has good theology of the Holy Spirit and people do receive the Spirit through Baptism, he said. "When God baptized you, it took. But maybe it's still in the freezer for you.""A lot of us look like we were not baptized in the Holy Spirit, but baptized in pickle juice."He cited the example of Herbert Muhlen, a leading Catholic theologian on the Holy Spirit. Muhlen took part in ecumenical dialogue with Pentecostals. One day, a Pentecostal leader, David DuPlessis, challenged Muhlen to pray that God would take the knowledge that was in his head and put it into his heart.Muhlen followed that advice and the next day returned to the dialogue on fire. "Jesus Christ is Lord," he proclaimed loudly as he entered the meeting room.Randall urged those at the conference to pray "the prayer of Herbert Muhlen" - to ask God to take the faith and knowledge in their heads and put it into their hearts."The Holy Spirit makes your Baptism come alive," he said. Then, like St. Paul, you can say, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2.20)."It's exciting when that happens. Jesus becomes everything for you."Teens, he said, don't want to attend Mass because they find it boring. Others claim the rosary is a dull prayer."When the Holy Spirit gets ahold of the Mass, it's not boring. When the Holy Spirit gets ahold of Eucharistic Adoration, it's not boring."Prayer is the most exciting thing in the world. Why? Because prayer is union with God."He recalled going with a group of young charismatics to talk to a Catholic campus group about prayer. When the group arrived, they found out that they only had 30 minutes to talk before the campus group turned to what it saw as the real event of the evening - a dance.The group went into action, speaking about the miracles and other life-giving experiences they had had in prayer. At midnight, they were still talking to the students and the dance never took place. The next day a carload of kids from the university group followed the charismatics to another town to learn more about prayer.FROM TALKING TO LISTENING:Randall said that before he received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, "I thought I was a praying man. But my prayer wasn't that great. My prayer was talking to God, selling him my plans."But the Lord "was not about to buy well-conceived plans.""My prayer changed from 90 per cent talking to God and 10 per cent listening to 90 per cent listening and 10 per cent talking."Previously, it had seemed God would never answer his prayers. But when he emphasized listening in prayer, "It was like getting the Midas touch. Every time I followed one of his plans, it worked."He started a small prayer group. Within a year, it had 500 members."It was exciting. We would meet to pray and we would pray all night." The pastor of the church where they met would kick them out, saying, "The Holy Spirit doesn't work after midnight." The group would move to a nearby house and continue praying until 2 or 3 a.m.His bishop sent Randall and another priest to run "a dying inner city parish" where the school had just been closed. The parishioners were angry about that closure. But the two priests started a prayer group and soon the prayer group decided to re-open the school. Former teachers volunteered to teach because they felt children shouldn't have to wait until they were in mid-life to meet the Holy Spirit.The parish blossomed and people began moving into the neighbourhood. The revival was so remarkable that it drew national media attention and Randall was asked to lead a seminar on parish renewal in Rome.A few years later, the bishop moved Randall to another parish, one in even worse shape, that the bishop was considering closing. Crime and prostitution were rampant in the neighbourhood and many people would not attend the prayer group because they were afraid of going into the area.EVANGELIZATION:

But the priest had no intention of closing the parish; he saw it as a potential centre for evangelization. Eventually, they were able to start Eucharistic Adoration in the parish, which in 1996 became perpetual adoration.Since then, the parish has had 21 vocations to the priesthood and religious life and has become one of the top financial parishes in the diocese. "Many people don't want to hear about the charismatic renewal, but money talks."The parish is now 90 per cent Hispanic with 1,000 people attending the noon Mass, a youth group of 200 teens and a Jesus Club where young children experience the Spirit. Three-quarters of the parishioners have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and a new Life in the Spirit seminar to bring new people into the charismatic renewal begins every seven weeks.Despite the explosion of new life in the two previously forsaken parishes, Randall is clear about one thing: "The charismatic movement is not going to change the world. The Holy Spirit is going to change the world."FIXING THE BUILDING:Movements are like the scaffolding needed to fix the building; they're not the building itself, he said. The charismatic movement will die, "but the building will be happy, healthy and beautiful."Randall recounts his experiences in his recent book, No Spirit, No Church. The title comes from an incident at the Second Vatican Council. Before the council began, theologians from Western Europe wrote the draft of a document on the nature of the Church. But when bishops from the Eastern churches saw the draft, they were horrified. It made no mention of the Holy Spirit."The Eastern bishops stood up and said, ''NoSpirit, No Church, "The resulting document, the Constitution on the Church, made numerous references to the Spirit, creating the opportunity for the rise of new movements in the Church because of what Randall called "this new openness to the Holy Spirit." -->

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*Fr. John Randall is a pastor emeritus of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Providence, Rhode Island. He retired in June, 2001 after serving 23 years as pastor. Father Randall is the author of: In God's Providence - The Birth of a Catholic Charismatic Parish--The Book of Revelation: What Does It Really Say?--Wisdom Instructs Her Children: The Power of the Spirit and the Word--Mary, Barrier or Bridge?--Pope John Paul Scriptural Rosary (20 decades) Spiritual Warfare, The Twenty-First Decade***Fr. Randall's New Book,- No Spirit, No Church,-- is now available at all Catholic Book Stores in Rhode Island. You can write to Fr. John Randall at PO Box 114006, North Providence, Rhode Island 02911 USA

If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the Word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.

"Because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you"

Our Lord's will is that we should rejoice and leap for joy when we are persecuted (Mt 5,12) because, when persecutions come, it is then that crowns of faith are given (cf. Jas 1,12), then that Christ's soldiers prove themselves, then that the heavens open to their witnesses. We aren't employed among God's forces only to think of quiet, running away from service when the Teacher of humility, patience and suffering has himself provided the same service before us. What he taught he first of all carried out, and if he exhorts us to stand firm it is because he himself suffered before us and on our behalf.

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**Our Lady's Medjugorje Message of March 25, 2010

"Dear children! Also today I desire to call you all to be strong in prayer and in the moments when Trials Attack You. Live your Christian vocation in joy and humility and witness to everyone. I am with you and I carry you all before my Son Jesus, and He will be your strength and support. Thank you for having responded to my call." 03/2010

5/6/10

Dear children! Today, through me, the good Father calls you to, with your soul filled with love, set out on a spiritual visitation. Dear children, be filled with grace, sincerely repent of your sins and yearn for the good. Yearn also in the name of those who have not come to know the perfection of the good. You will be more pleasing to God. Thank you." (May 2, 2010)

"Sincerely repent of your sins." Again Our Lady speaks in heart language. She wants us to be completely free of our past and the sins that cling to us. Sometimes, when we have serious sins in our past, we can carry those sins around with us long after we have confessed them. Like the Ancient Mariner of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, we can carry the albatross around our neck as a sign of our guilt and shame long after the Lord has forgiven us and called us to a new life. The Lord doesn't want us to carry our shame in such a way. He wants us to repent, recognize the sin, and then run to Him for forgiveness and freedom.

Let's remember this message from Our Lady given earlier this year:"

Dear children! Today I am calling you, with complete trust and love, to set out with me, because I desire to acquaint you with my Son. Do not be afraid, my children, I am here with you, I am next to you. I am showing you the way to forgive yourselves, to forgive others, and, with sincere repentance of heart, to kneel before the Father. Make everything die in you that hinders you from loving and saving - that you may be with Him and in Him. Decide for a new beginning, a beginning of sincere love of God Himself. Thank you." (Jan 2, 2010)

A serious dispute broke out in the church at Antioch about the need for Gentile converts to be circumcised as a prerequisite for salvation. Paul and Barnabas said 'No.' Some other Jewish Christians said 'Yes.' "Finally it was decided that Paul, Barnabas, and some others should go up to see the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem about this question" (Acts 15:2).

Talk about a stacked deck! The "apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem" were mainly circumcised Jewish men. Moreover, Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish faith. Seemingly, the odds of getting a decision against circumcision in Jerusalem would rival the odds of outlawing St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ireland

**Paul and Barnabas showed tremendous submission to the authority of the Church by leaving their Gentile Christian stronghold in Antioch to present their case in circumcised Jerusalem. They also displayed great faith in God's ability to act through the leaders of the Church, and trusted their leaders to follow the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the apostles and presbyters acted with true humility and docility by listening to the Lord and not presuming they knew God's will all along. All of them submitted themselves to the authority of Peter, the first Pope. At Peter's words, "the whole assembly fell silent" (Acts 15:12).

May all Catholics today imitate the early Church in her humility, order, submission, and trust in God's will. Prayer: Father, may we obey our leaders, submit to them, and "act that they may fulfill their task with joy, not with sorrow" (Heb 13:17).

5/5/10

[The apostles] made their way through Phoenicia and Samaria, telling everyone about the conversion of the Gentiles as they went." —Acts 15:3

*Instead of telling the Phoenicians and Samaritans about the Church bickering in Antioch (Acts 15:2), the apostles told them about the conversion of the Gentiles. These apostles spoke from the abundance of their hearts (Lk 6:45) and what filled their hearts was the joy of Jesus in heaven over the conversion of repentant sinners (Lk 15:7, 10). The ongoing church dissension and controversy, while important enough to cause their trip to Jerusalem, was not absorbing the hearts of the apostles. Their minds were fixed on what was above rather than what was on earth (Col 3:1ff). Since the Lord in heaven finds more joy in the conversion of one sinner, the hearts of the apostles were focused on conversion and on finding ways to please Jesus. (see Ps 104:34)

**How many times have you heard conversations about the conversions taking place in your parish RCIA programs or soup kitchens? Now, how many times have you heard conversations focused on internal church squabbles? Repent of desiring to talk about church dissensions, strife, discord, and controversies (see 1 Tm 6:4). Allow God to prune away any spirit of dissension and disunity. Remain in Jesus (Jn 15:4), Who came to seek and save the lost (Lk 19:10), and bear "much fruit" of evangelization and conversion (Jn 15:8).

*Prayer: Father, help me to "say only the good things" people "need to hear, things that will really help them" (Eph 4:29)."He who lives in Me and I in him, will produce abundantly, for apart from Me you can do nothing." —Jn 15:5

5/4/10

Is the Catholic Church separate from the sins of her members?In one sense she is not. The wounds inflicted by one member affect all others, sending shockwaves through the whole community.It is even more difficult when the church’s spiritual leaders are implicated in grave sins, especially when believers have turned to them for leadership, wisdom and in moments of great joy and sorrow. We are embodied, relational beings, and it is impossible to untangle personal faith from our experience as fellow believers.That being said, our faith is not in people. If it were, the church would have fallen to pieces at its conception.During Jesus’ ministry, the first Apostles shamelessly argued among themselves over who would have greater authority in Christ’s Kingdom. They turned away children only to have Jesus take them in. When Jesus was seized in the Garden to be crucified, Peter lashed out with the violence of the sword, while many of his fellow disciples ran in fear and utter confusion.And just moments before, some of the disciples fell asleep while attempting to pray with Jesus as he pleaded with the Father on the eve of his Crucifixion.And who can forget Judas — from Christ’s inner circle — the man who betrayed the Lord for a bribe of 30 pieces of silver?Then we read again of Peter, the one Jesus chose to be the “Rock” of the church — the first pope. Peter denied Christ three times, as the Lord labored up the tortuous road to Calvary. Later, the Apostle Thomas doubted whether Christ really rose from the dead.From the very beginning, the church was a tangle of human confusion, fear and weakness. Left to her own devices, it is hard to see how she could have lasted a decade let alone 2,000 years.But in all these instances, it was Christ who was the trustworthy guide. He continued to forgive and sanctify. He met his disciples in their weakness and strengthened them for the great work that lay ahead.For his part, Judas did not return to Christ. Even after sitting at the feet of the Lord, he chose his own way, took his life and lost the call to be one of the first ministers of the church.Scripture does not whitewash the church’s history or make her appear spotless and without sin. Rather, she is seen as completely dependent on the grace of God.Certainly, circumstances have changed over the last 2,000 years.The Catholic Church is now a global entity with 1.15 billion followers and more than 400,000 priests and bishops. Yet, as in biblical times, human sin still wounds her and causes great suffering.Sin and suffering, however, have never been the final words. Christ takes broken humanity and redeems it, and from the tangle of sin he still calls for great saints to radiate his presence to the world.He has done this for 2,000 years and is still sanctifying today.Yes, we suffer, but not without the unfailing hope that Christ is more powerful than our sin. He established this church to proclaim the message of salvation and freedom. In his infinite wisdom, Christ chose a broken band of followers to launch this great mission. Our hope today is the same as theirs. We are weak but Christ is strong and he has promised to remain with his church always.In this time of purging and healing, let us turn to the One who began this work and who will see it to completion.The writer is editor of the Catholic Anchor, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

Jesus' words to Saint Faustina:In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolds to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. (1588)

It's a sign for the End Times; after it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My mercy; let them profit from the Blood and Water which gushed forth for them. (848)

Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the doors of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the doors of My mercy must pass through the doors of My justice... (1146)

5/3/10

We must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God." —Acts 14:22 St.Paul had recently been stoned, dragged out of town, and left for dead (Acts 14:19). After being raised up and continuing his work, he gave his "disciples reassurances, and encouraged them to persevere in the faith" (Acts 14:22). When someone who's black and blue, with patches of hair pulled out, and an eye swollen shut talks about reassurances, perseverance, trials, and God's kingdom, he has credibility. He has already practiced what he's preaching.

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Then Paul "installed presbyters and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in Whom they had put their faith" (Acts 14:23). Paul was not well-groomed, handsome, and dressed in fine vestments as he led this prayer service. When the person praying over you has cuts all over his hands and face and has a couple teeth missing, the prayer takes on more meaning. We're not just being prayed for to be blessed, but to be sacrificed.

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Finally, Paul returned to Antioch, the church which had sent him and Barnabas on this first missionary journey. "On their arrival, they called the congregation together and related all that God had helped them accomplish, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 14:27). Obviously this was not just a committee report. The congregation couldn't help but notice Paul's condition and realize that making disciples of all nations and being Church was more serious than they had ever suspected.

5/2/10

“Dear children; Today, through me, the good Father calls you to, with your soul filled with love, set out on a spiritual visitation. Dear children, be filled with grace, sincerely repent for your sins and yearn for the good. Yearn also in the name of those who have not come to know the perfection of the good. You will be more pleasing to God. Thank you.”

Ed Sousa, Sr.

VISITORS

Our Lady's Monthly Message From Medjugorje to Marija

Dear children! Also today I am calling all of you to prayer. You cannot live without prayer, because prayer is a chain which brings you closer to God. Therefore, little children, in humility of heart return to God and to His commandments so that with all of your heart you are able to say: as it is in Heaven so may it be on earth. You, little children, are free to, in freedom, decide for God or against Him. See where Satan wants to pull you into sin and slavery. Therefore, little children, return to my heart so that I can lead you to my Son Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady's 2nd of the month, Monthly Message To Mirjana

Dear children, I have called you and am calling you anew to come to know my Son, to come to know the truth. I am with you and am praying for you to succeed. My children, you must pray much in order to have all the more love and patience; to know how to endure sacrifice and to be poor in spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, my Son is always with you. His Church is born in every heart that comes to know Him. Pray that you can come to know my Son; pray that your soul may be one with Him. That is the prayer and the love which draws others and makes you my apostles. I am looking at you with love, with a motherly love. I know you; I know your pain and sorrows, because I also suffered in silence. My faith gave me love and hope. I repeat, the Resurrection of my Son and my Assumption into Heaven is hope and love for you. Therefore, my children, pray to come to know the truth; to have firm faith which will lead your heart and which will transform your pain and sufferings into love and hope. Thank you.

Pray for Priests

ADOPT A PRIEST IN PRAYER

Could you find in your heart to adopt a priest and pray for him daily?

In a letter Benedict XVI expressed his satisfaction for the campaign for Eucharistic adoration and spiritual "maternity" for the sanctification of the world's priests. The campaign calls especially for "women consecrated" to spiritually adopt priests to help them, through their self-offering, prayer, and penance. It is hoped that through this initiative there will rise up to God from every corner of the earth an incessant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, praise, supplication and reparation, so as to give rise to a sufficient number of holy vocations to the priesthood.

Prayer for Priests

Lord Jesus, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and living perpetually among us through Your Priests, grant that the words of Your Priests may be only Your words, that their gestures be only Your gestures, and that their lives be a true reflection of Your life. Grant that they may be men who speak to God on behalf of His people, and speak to His people of God. Grant that they be courageous in service, serving the Church as she asks to be served. Grant that they may be men who witness to eternity in our time, traveling on the paths of history in Your steps, and doing good for all. Grant that they may be faithful to their commitments, zealous in their vocation and mission, clear mirrors of their own identity, and living the joy of the gift they have received. We pray that Your Holy Mother, Mary, present throughout Your life, may be ever present in the life of Your Priests. Amen.

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINARSare also available in English and Spanish to anyone who wishes to attend. All are invited to come and join us for an evening of prayer, witnessing and healing, beginning with the celebration of the Holy Mass.

DVD of Divine Mercy Weekend with Fr. Randall, at Our Lady of LaSalette Shrine. To Obtain copy of this event call (508) 236-9068

FATHER JOHN RANDALL IS THE AUTHOR OF:

In God's Providence - The Birth of a Catholic Charismatic Parish

The Book of Revelation: What Does It Really Say?

Wisdom Instructs Her Children: The Power of the Spirit and the Word

Mary, Barrier or Bridge?

Pope John Paul Scriptural Rosary (20 decades)

Spiritual Warfare, The Twenty-First Decade

*Fr. Randall's last published book,- No Spirit, No Church,- is available at all Catholic Book Stores in Rhode Island or

order on Amazon.

*Father John J. Randall's New Rosary Prayer Book has been reprinted with a hard cover with his picture on the cover.

It also contains the Novana to the Holy Spirit and the Divine Mercy chaplet. It is being sold at Saint Charles Borromeo Church, 178 Dexter Street, Providence, R.I Tel-401-421-6441 at the cost price of $4:00 - Also available at Gabriel's Trumpet book store at 477 Washington Street, Coventry, R.I. Tel: 401-823-4884

You can also call Saint Charles Rectory at 401-421-6441

Fr. Joe Whalen, M.S.

Archangel St. Raphael Holy Healing Ministry - Click on photo...

Fr. Joseph Whalen is the founder of Archangel St. Raphael Holy Healing Ministry. He retired in 2014 at the age of 91. He has spent his entire priesthood witnessing to Christ's healing presence. Please keep him in your prayers.

August 8th 2016 Fr. Joe Whalen has gone to his eternal rest. His legacy and love for this Ministry that he founded will continue. We now have a powerful intercessor in heaven!